The United Empire
__TOC__ The United Empire, officially the Great United Empire of Halshaa and Earth is an interstellar government formed from the union of the former United Nations and Holy Empire. It spans over 200 planets, many of them otherwise uninhabitable Death Worlds. Very young to the interstellar community, the United Empire nonetheless has had a massive impact on galactic history, being central to the events of the Intervention Crisis and following Intervention War, which lead to the total dissolution of the Cooperative Society of the Helbin. Etymology and terminology The Treaty of Union stated that "all legal distinctions" between both the Holy Empire and the United Nations were dissolved. The United Empire's monkier is therefore a combination of the two former governments, which is also reflected in the UE's flag, a combination of the Imperial Crest of the Holy Empire and laurel wreathes of the United Nations. History The foundations for the UE can be directly traced back to the Intervention War. Formerly enemies, the United Nations and Holy Empire assembled an ad-hoc command structure that lasted for the duration of the war, dubbed United-Imperial Command. Its responsibilities included directing fleet movements, resource allocation, and on liberated planets, temporary governance. As the war dragged on, the militaries of both the UN and HE blurred to the point that they were effectively one cohesive armed force. It was from this combination of the armies that the idea was first proposed by UN Vice-President Samantha Bee to merge the governments as well. Following the Intervention War, the United Empire was formed after the signing of the Treaty of Union, a historic treaty that permanently merged the governments of both the United Nations and Holy Empire under the structure of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Recently, the United Empire has seen a period of rapid expansion into what has become known as The Curtain, a cluster of stars that the former Helbin government refused to colonize. This presents new challenges to the UE, as independent actors often colonize faster than the UE's military can keep pace, leading to many areas of lawlessness along the frontier. At the same time, there is now widespread discontent among the former Helbin worlds, still under occupation. Legislation to either incorporate the planets or grant them independence have been proposed, but so far every reform has stalled in the Hraak, the UE legislature. Government The United Empire operates as a unitary constitutional monarchy, with seats in the 1000-member Hrrak (also referred to as the Senate) decided by popular elections every five years. Though officially ruling in the stead of the current monarch of the UE, Vahni X, the duties of the Emperor have long since become strictly ceremonial. The actual head of government is the President, leader of the Executive Branch and selected in the same popular vote as the Hrrak itself. Demographics The United Empire is mostly comprised of the Lords of War, the blanket term of two of the only known sapient species that have arisen on so-called Death Worlds. In archaic use, the two former species were known as humans (bipedal primates) and Haas Suul (feathered, armed serpents). It is unknown exactly when and where the name was first utilized, but quickly spread throughout the galactic community to the point where the two species adopted the name as their own. During the last offical census of the UE, it published the following report: